What Were They Thinking?

[Welcome Industry Radar Readers!]

Sometimes folks just make it too easy. They make silly comments or ludicrous decisions and then can't figure out why things go awry.

Apparently the residents of Massachusetts are not content to select someone like Barney Frank, the flip-flopping guardian of Fannie Mae, as their representative. The folks who work at the Mass Connector are also missing the boat.

Mass Connector is not a freeway interchange but rather the marketing & regulatory arm for insurance matters. In an effort to further gouge their citizens, they have come up with "minimum credible standards" for health insurance.

One such regulation limits Rx deductibles.

So why is this a bad thing?

"So one of the biggest innovations in healthcare cost control in the last decade stands to be wiped off the books for Massachusetts employers," said Edholm. "For the first time, the HSA gives the average employee a stake in the game by allowing him to get health contributions back, income-tax-free. At the same time it lets employers to save money, too."

And what is the upshot of this?

"The HSA will be gone, and employers will be left with just higher-priced plans -- which the new regulations will make even more costly. It makes ZERO sense in a difficult economy to arbitrarily load additional costs onto a healthcare system that can barely afford what's already loaded onto it."

Makes zero sense.

I concur.

Sounds like it is time to fire the folks at the Mass Connector.